Railroad Stuff

I just read this really long but very interesting article about railroads, and I thought I'd share my favorite parts of it here:

The Railway Express Agency, which attached special cars to passenger trains, provided Americans with a level of express freight service that cannot be had for any price today,offering door-to-door delivery of everything from canoes to bowls of tropical fish to, in at least one instance, a giraffe. Into the 1950s, it was not uncommon for a family to ship its refrigerator to and from a lakeside cabin for the summer via the REA; thanks to the physics of steel-on-steel conveyance,appliance-sized items could be moved for trivially larger amounts of money than smaller goods (think about that the next time you shell out an extra $50 to check a suitcase of dirty clothes on a domestic flight).

Today, the nation's rail network is just 94,942 miles, less than half of what it was in 1970, yet it is hauling 137 percent more freight, making for extreme congestion and longer shipping times.

For a brief time in 2004, UPS did persuade two railroads to run a train fast enough to handle this business. But due to insufficient track to allows lower trains to get out of its way, the UPS bullet train caused massive congestion, freezing up the Union Pacific system for months until the railroad at last canceled the service.

Today, most other industrial countries make extensive use of electric locomotives, and for good reason. They are two and a half to three times more efficient than diesels, more powerful, and cheaper to maintain. They also last longer, accelerate faster, and have much higher top speeds. Trains carrying containers at 100 miles per hour are more than possible. Powered by an overhead wire or third rail, electric locomotives don't have to lug the weight of their own fuel around with them.

Another potential use of steel wheel interstates would be auto trains. Today, Amtrak offers a service that allows motorists to drive their cars onto special auto racks that are attached to the back of a passenger train. The train runs daily between northern Virginia and central Florida,saving users 855 miles of driving down I-95. The service is particularly popular among northern "snowbirds" who spend the winter in Florida and want to have their cars with them.

I also will post it on my facebook group (which you should join!) about electrifying U.S. rail.

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